MacGuffin

MacGuffin is Comma's self-publishing platform for fiction and poetry

It's perfect for people who like having stories read to them – everything on there is in both text and audio form.

MacGuffin's designed to help readers find new writing they'll love, and help writers find new readers. Any user can add tags to anyone else's work to describe the content, create a reading list, or add it to meme.

It's free to use for readers and writers, and anyone can publish their work on there. There's lots of great content by Comma writers, along with other fiction and poetry publishers and spoken-word nights, including Bloodaxe, Valley Press, Flapjack, Carcanet and Peepal Tree.

Shortlisted for the 'Platform of the Year' in the Bookseller's Futurebook Awards, 2015

Early Press Coverage for MacGuffin

"might be one of the smartest things any publisher has done in some time." – The Observer.

"Manchester-based MacGuffin from Comma Press acts like a Spotify for books - you can hear authors reading their stories out loud. Its analytics reveal what gets read where, and at what point people lose interest. Readers can append tags to a story - "sci fi", "dystopian", or "feminist", for example - and use these to discover other new fiction, much in the same way someone might browse through a physical bookshop." – BBC Business Blog

"Helps users find stories and poetry to match their travel time and your literary tastes." – The Skinny

"The result, if MacGuffin succeeds, will be a democratic approach to writing, with direct routes from author to reader." –Times Literary Supplement

"It’s rare to see a small independent press break new ground with disruptive publishing models but MacGuffin does just that." – Writing.ie

"This is definitely a new direction in digital publishing, with some excellent features to help writers to get their work noticed, and for readers to discover stories they love, whether they prefer to read, or to listen" – Redbrick Science and Technology.

MacGuffin is a collaboration between Comma Press, fffunction (a design agency) and the Manchester Metropolitan University. The project is supported by the Digital R&D for the Arts Fund.